“If you expose a situation similar to the one you have just described to me, send all materials to law enforcement agencies immediately for opening a criminal case,” the president said at a meeting with FMMS Head Yuri Chikhankin said on Wednesday, June 13.

According to Chikhankin, “We look at such things in the first place as government procurements. We have scrutinised all government contracts that were implemented faster than in a month. For example, the construction of a hospital within 20 days. The contract was more than 200 million [roubles]. We are conducting the investigation,” he said.

He could not say whether the whole contract was bogus.

“We have examined a number of such contracts and are now preparing, together with law enforcement agencies, the relevant materials,” Chikhankin said.

“We are continuing to work in other fields as well, such as housing and utilities, there are concrete cases in the defence industry and we are handing them over [to police],” he said.

Putin urged the Service to continue active but careful work, including the monitoring of government expenditures.

“The Federal Financial Monitoring Service is very important and it does much for fighting corruption, restoring order in finances and combating money laundering. Over all the years of your work, with all the complexity and confidentiality of your work, information that could have damaged business or the economy never left your office,” Putin said.

“I hope very much that you will continue to work as intensively, actively and very carefully,” he said.

He noted particularly control over the use of budget funds. “I want to ask you to pay special attention to government contracts,” he added.

The FMMS will make a report at the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) next week. “The report is ready, it’s all positive,” Chikhankin said, adding that only technical questions remain. “Legislative amendments need to be made. We will do it before the end of the year,” he said.